Rikulec Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2030 - Latvia Friendlies A rather frustrating couple of games. We were the better team against Lithuania, but had to come back from conceding a sloppy set piece goal and couldn't manage more than one goal. We also absolutely shouldn't be conceding three against Andorra. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 Not sure what to make of this draw. Azerbaijan and Cyprus seem to be at a level roughly similar to ours and Hungary will probably be out of our reach. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 I hadn't seen those for so long that I thought this feature had been removed from the game altogether! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 I don't care that he's 33, he immediately becomes our best defender and he's going to slot into the starting XI. He's been at RFS since 2020 and in real life there's no way he's going to stay there as long as he has in the game, he already has half of the Polish Ekstraklasa teams interested. I won't be surprised if he gets capped by Slovenia at some point too, he's an undiscovered gem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 6, 2023 Author Share Posted November 6, 2023 It's mostly the usual squad, apart from two players. You've already seen Lipušček, the other one is Gļebs Žaleiko. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September & October 2030 - Latvia Nations League C We started off great against Azerbaijan, but then just went downhill from there. Losing to Hungary was pretty much expected, even though we gave them a decent run for their money at home. Cyprus, however, was a hugely frustrating game where we couldn't take our chances, and then we conceded against the run of play and simply switched off. We shouldn't have lost that one, and we definitely shouldn't have lost by three ****ing goals. It turns out that given the quality of all teams we should be the second best here, but it's going to be a massive ask to overturn that deficit against Cyprus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Two wins, that's all I'll accept from this international break. Emīls Birka joins the squad following injuries of Dusmanovs and Silovs and Roberts Šarando replaces Sprukts, who was a big disappointment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2030 - Latvia Nations League C Laughable stuff once again, we miss one close range header after another while Cyprus casually bang in two long shots to beat us once again. At least our games weren't boring I guess. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Three years in charge of the national team and I feel like it's time to call it a day. Two poor Nations League campaigns and a decent World Cup qualifying year under my belt. In all honesty, I don't feel like I can make any real progress here. Some of the better players are aging and there are no real replacements in sight. The Latvian clubs don't have good enough facilities to fill this gap yet, and without an influx of players, I'm left helpless. What's next? I'll be waiting until a job at one of the biggest Virslīga clubs opens up and then I'm going to apply for it. RFS would be ideal as I set them as my favourite club (and I do follow them in real life). I don't think it's time for a job outside of Latvia just yet. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 It's been almost a year and still no suitable job has opened up, but there's some positive news to report. My former club Grobiņas have achieved historic success by claiming their first cup victory! It was a tough run too, they had to beat Liepâja (who have just been crowned champions for the first time since 2024, also the first non-Riga team to do that since then), BFC, and Riga FC on their way to the final. Well done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 It's 13th January 2032 and it's been over a year since my departure from the Latvian national team. Still nothing has opened up and quite honestly I'm getting tired of just clicking continue all the time. That's why I've applied to Dukla Banská Bystrica in the Slovakian league. They're currently 6th in the table with four games left until the league splits into the championship group and relegation group. Comparing my reputation to the other managers in the league and considering the whole situation, I don't think it would be unrealistic for a young manager with three years of senior national team experience to get a chance in a mid-table Slovakian club. Let's see what happens. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Boo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 Fast forward to 2nd June and I was invited to an interview at Super Nova, who are currently bottom of the league. Thanks, but no thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 It's 17th August and an interesting opportunity has just opened up. Granted, it's not one of the big clubs I was initially hoping for after leaving the national team. However, Metta are a really interesting project - in real life they have one of the best academies in the country and, according to a guy who used to manage in Latvia, their activity largely revolves around promoting Latvian national identity (bear in mind that Latvia only gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, to this day Russians make up around 25% of the population). Interestingly enough, they were also recommended to me as a potential destination if I were to move to Latvia one day. They're also based in Riga, which further strengthens the patriotic angle. They seem to be the perfect fit for the idea of this save, and after almost two years without a job it's time to come to terms with a step down the ladder. As for their league position, Metta are currently 8th and almost safe from relegation, barring some great escape from Spartaks or Super Nova. I really hope this is the moment! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 (edited) I managed to get the wage up to £150 p/w. It still makes me the lowest earning manager in the league though, how the mighty have fallen! It's a good thing I still have plenty of money left from the national team days. Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - FK Metta Interestingly enough, when I took over at Grobiņas, it was also Viktors Dobrecovs who I replaced. Hopefully it works out well once again! Club Name: FK Metta Nickname: Metta Year Founded: 2006 Status: Professional Stadium: Rigas Hanzas vsk. stadions (1,000 all-seater, 300 capacity used in normal matches) The squad seems to be all over the place with some random loanees, plenty of old players and a striking lack of quality up front. I'm looking forward to another huge winter overhaul already! On the other hand, I absolutely love Danills Rozentals, our very own academy product who's already one of our best players at just 20 years of age. Other notable figures are Ognjen Mažić, Yasin Mrani, and, last but not least, former Grobiņas star man Artūrs Bērziņš. There are a few more of my old friends here as well: Kirils Iļjins, Eduards Daškevičs, Ņikita Pašņevs, and Kristaps Grabovskis all played for me at Grobiņas, and Ernests Bespalovs emerged as a little starlet back in the Latvia U19 days; he doesn't seem to have lived up to the hype though and he's likely to get released at the end of this season. Reasonable expectations from the board, we're already out of the cup and we shouldn't have too much trouble staying up in the league. The fans also want us to develop players using our youth system and I think this is the really big part of what I want to achieve here. This club has the potential to become a long term project centered around building the best academy in Latvia, producing players for the national team and improving the standard of football in the country. I want our transfer policy to be based on bringing in young domestic players with good potential (think Strods at Grobiņas) and promoting our own academy products. At the same time, I don't want to spend too much on players, rather wheeling and dealing in order to invest in our facilities. There's one additional factor that could help us a lot here: The league seems to have got a sweet new TV deal, potentially thanks to RFS and Riga FC doing well in Europe and regularly appearing in the Europa Conference League group stage. That means a steady stream of revenue for us as well. Here's the current financial projection: We're predicted to make a profit season after season, which is fantastic. We could probably aim for short term success, throw all that cash at shiny new players and try to challenge for the European spots, but I'm looking at a different strategy here. Invest heavily into facilities, buy youngsters cheap and sell them on for a good profit, and make this project more about building the nation than just being a successful club on the pitch. I have to say I'm quite excited for the journey ahead! Edited November 8, 2023 by Rikulec 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 I asked the board to improve both our youth recruitment and junior coaching during the job interview. They rejected the former, but accepted the latter, making a positive statement early on. We're now up to good junior coaching, our youth recruitment remains average and our training and youth facilities are both below average. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2032 - FK Metta Virslīga Uh oh, this looks bad. We lost to the only team who can realistically drag us into a relegation battle. We seemed to be the better team, but we're never gonna win games if we give away cheap goals to every single shot on target we face. Our next opponent is Super Nova at home and it has become an absolute must-win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2032 - FK Metta Virslīga That's more like it! Against Super Nova we managed to grind out a much needed win despite not actually playing that well. The Auda game was a brilliant performance from start to finish though, well deserved three points. We're almost mathematically safe and we could be looking up, trying to catch Auda or Tukums, but with our next three games being RFS, Riga, and Valmiera I think we're most likely going to finish 8th. Youth Intake I think I'm falling in love with Metta already. I especially like the look of Smetanovs and Salkic, they might get fast tracked to the first team next season. Rendijs Kurakins Daniels Kokins Marks Smetanovs Almir Salkic Jevgenijs Grosbergs Ralfs Kārkliņš 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2032 - FK Metta Virslīga Oh my, I certainly didn't see that coming! We're on fire right now, dominating possession and deservedly beating the best two teams in the league. Notice the meltdown of Riga, in addition to losing four of their last five games in the league they also lost the cup final to RFS on penalties. As for us, with five wins in a row we have a chance to finish 6th if we beat Tukums away on final day. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2032 - FK Metta Virslīga We end the season on a high note with a sixth win in a row away at our rivals Tukums. If those early days are a sign of things to come, we're in for a very good time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2032 - FK Metta Virslīga Results (Mar-May) - Results (Jun-Aug) (red line marks my arrival) - Results (Sep-Nov) Competition Performance: 6th I inherited a team on a nine-game winless streak in the league and started off with a defeat to lowly Spartaks, but after that we pulled off one of the most spectacular turnarounds you can imagine. We beat the league's heavyweights straight away and climbed all the way up to 6th. My 4-3-3 seems to be even more overpowered since the full game launch, but the real test will be the next season. Can we keep up our amazing form? Latvijas Kauss Competition Performance: Fourth Round The previous manager got unlucky with the draw there, they did well to take Riga to extra time. Squad (1) - Squad (2) There are a few quality players that pretty much enabled us to hit the ground running. The squad is terribly balanced though and there are plenty of issues I have to address, the biggest one being the lack of depth. With Kourouma set to leave at the end of his contract and all those loanees returning to their clubs, we're facing a big rebuild in the winter. It's also a good time to introduce a few of our promising academy products into the first team. Transfers (1) - Transfers (2) - Finances I wasn't responsible for any of the transfers into or out of the club. The previous boss raided Slovakia for loans, which is not exactly my way of doing business. We're making a nice, steady profit and I hope it's going to be reflected in our wage budget for next season. Our wage bill is by far the lowest in the league and even with the philosophy I'm adhering to, we simply need to spend a bit more to keep up with the rest of the teams. Player of the Season 1st - Peter Jacko - he may not be a very rounded player, but with his crossing and agility he's just bound to be a massive threat for any defence at our level. Since my arrival he contributed four goals and four assists in seven games, which shows a lot of promise for the upcoming season. 2nd - Daniils Rozentals - the youngster has lived up to the hype, delivering a string of consistent performances and topping it off with two goals playing as an inverted wing back. It's unlikely that we're going to be able to hold onto him unfortunately, I hope we can get a good price and a nice clause or two. 3rd - Ņikita Pašņevs - I love this guy. Once a key player for my Grobiņas side, he's once again proving that he can deliver the numbers despite being a rather limited player overall. So far I've been bringing him on from the bench, but he might just earn a spot in the starting XI. Next Season With the right reinforcements I can see us battling for the European spots, or at least aiming for a top half finish. This can't be done at the expense of our youth though, they'll be given plenty of minutes in order to develop. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Getting this message means we're absolutely not winning the first game next season, right @Jimbokav1971? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 8, 2023 Author Share Posted November 8, 2023 Holy ****, the board are getting proper mad here. We're spending about a fifth of that wage budget at the moment and if we were to spend it all, we'd have the third highest wage bill in the league behind Riga and RFS. That transfer budget is ridiculous too. Assuming all Virslīga clubs are getting the same amount of money from the TV deal, it might be a real gamechanger for Latvian football! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2033 - FK Metta Board Expectations: Virslīga: Avoid relegation Latvijas Kauss: Quarter Final My Expectations: Virslīga: I think the board should be a bit more ambitious there. I'm going for a top half finish as a minimum. Latvijas Kauss: Get as far as the luck of the draw allows us. Budgets: Transfer: £752,808 Wage: £20,890 (currently spending £5,240) Balance: £656,379 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 The league has just received a new five-year TV deal and it's even bigger than the last one! This is a lot of money for us and a huge boost for the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 We're getting upgrades! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted November 9, 2023 Share Posted November 9, 2023 8 hours ago, Rikulec said: Getting this message means we're absolutely not winning the first game next season, right @Jimbokav1971? No, getting it is fine. That's not the problem at all. Posting the message here for all to see is deemed gloating by the FM Gods though and they will take immediate action to correct your boastful ways! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 (edited) Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2033 - FK Metta Friendlies A draw against a decent Estonian side and plenty of goals against Latvian lower league teams. Transfers Seven new players in and we've set a new transfer record. Nauris Astrahancevs - a decent centre back who's probably going to be third choice. Normunds Sulainis - a player I'm very happy to have got. He should be a great asset for our midfield. Valerijs Lizunovs - we're really building our attack on physical players with limited ability. Mareks Skļarenko - a more technical type of striker that I have high hopes for. For starters he's going to be Lizunovs' understudy. Vladimirs Ivanovs - if everything else fails, we'll just stick this lad at centre back to scare the opponents' front players away. Toms Papakuls - the big transfer that my staff seem to dislike. I believe in him though, mostly because of his mentals. He does need plenty of development.Jānis Azgrāvis - we steal a very good player from our fierce rivals Liepāja. In addition to the above, we've also promoted Almir Salkic, Vladimirs Žavoronkovs, Dmitrijs Bitāns, and Antons Barnics to the first team. Barnics will be retrained to play at right back. Edited November 9, 2023 by Rikulec 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga We defy the FM gods by winning our first game after my blasphemous act of boasting, extending our run to seven wins in a row. My bogey team Liepāja have once again proven to be a step too far though, but we gave them a very even game that could have gone either way. Jelgava was a very straightforward and dominant performance even with us rotating the squad a bit. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted November 9, 2023 Share Posted November 9, 2023 Superb half-season with Metta. Good Luck for this season 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 2 minutes ago, ToMexico!! said: Superb half-season with Metta. Good Luck for this season It was actually less than a quarter of a season, but thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted November 9, 2023 Share Posted November 9, 2023 Just now, Rikulec said: It was actually less than a quarter of a season, but thanks. Tamato, Tomato 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkosatiy Posted November 9, 2023 Share Posted November 9, 2023 Go Metta! Btw, your TV deal is twice bigger than a current Polish one 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 12 hours ago, rkosatiy said: Go Metta! Btw, your TV deal is twice bigger than a current Polish one I checked that one specifically and what you're saying isn't true, unless there's an error in the database. The current real life Polish TV deal is 1,3B PLN divided by 18 clubs for four years, which amounts to roughly £3M per season for each club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkosatiy Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 (edited) 8 hours ago, Rikulec said: I checked that one specifically and what you're saying isn't true, unless there's an error in the database. The current real life Polish TV deal is 1,3B PLN divided by 18 clubs for four years, which amounts to roughly £3M per season for each club. Oh, this is weird cause I got €1.1M at the start of my last season. The deal is through 2028 in-game, so I'll look it up again next summer Edited November 10, 2023 by rkosatiy 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 10, 2023 Author Share Posted November 10, 2023 14 hours ago, rkosatiy said: Oh, this is weird cause I got €1.1M at the start of my last season. The deal is through 2028 in-game, so I'll look it up again next summer There are some slight differences depending on the final standing in the table, but €1.1M is way too low. Could be a data issue, maybe it's worth raising. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkosatiy Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 1 hour ago, Rikulec said: There are some slight differences depending on the final standing in the table, but €1.1M is way too low. Could be a data issue, maybe it's worth raising. The end of May Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 10, 2023 Author Share Posted November 10, 2023 29 minutes ago, rkosatiy said: The end of May This would be the place to report the issue: https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2024-early-access-bugs-tracker/database-and-research/poland-data-issues/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 10, 2023 Author Share Posted November 10, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga A very frustrating month, that one. Four defeats make it look bad, but we weren't outplayed in any of those games. We only lost to Tukums because I underestimated them and rotated the squad too much. To make things worse, our first choice goalkeeper Rudolfs Soloha broke his arm in the Grobiņas game and his replacement Nikita Parfjonovs is proving himself not good enough for this level, unfortunately. Against Riga and Liepāja he let in shots that were literally flying straight at him! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 (edited) Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga That's more like it! Valmiera was another close game that we couldn't tip our way despite grabbing the lead and we struggled for a long time against Jelgava, even going behind in the first half. We managed to snatch a late victory though and things kicked off from there. Auda was a fantastic performance where we kept a clean sheet despite playing a sack of potatoes between the sticks (probably because we didn't allow a single shot on target). Soloha returned for the RFS game and he immediately contributed to our win with a few crucial saves. It was also nice to end the month with a big win. Dizzy heights of 3rd, but I can see both Riga and RFS surging up and trying to claw their way into the European spots. Also, poor Jelgava. Edited November 11, 2023 by Rikulec 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roganp Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 Nice bounce back after the struggles of the previous month! Surely Jelgava can’t go the entire season without getting a single point 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 2 hours ago, roganp said: Nice bounce back after the struggles of the previous month! Surely Jelgava can’t go the entire season without getting a single point Thank you! The current record lowest point haul is 4, set by Super Nova a few seasons ago. I think we might have a strong contender here. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 Nothing to get really excited about at first glance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 Depends on the intake. I very rarely rely on these 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 14 minutes ago, Deisler26 said: Depends on the intake. I very rarely rely on these You're probably right, although I find it rare that an undiscovered gem slips through the preview; much more often it's the opposite and highly rated players turn out to be ****. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 Upgrades, upgrades everywhere! We're now at adequate youth facilities, excellent junior coaching, and good youth recruitment. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 11, 2023 Author Share Posted November 11, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - June 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga A perfect month and a set of fantastic games for us! I'm especially happy to have finally beaten Liepāja for the first time since the beginning of this save. It was also one of our best performances yet, we had almost 40 shots away at the league leaders! In other news, Jelgava have beaten Tukums and the RFS manager's job is under threat now. Transfers Sergejs Vilkovs - after watching Parfjonovs play for several games I decided to make signing a second choice goalkeeper our top priority. Vilkovs joins us for £10,5K from Grobiņas. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 13, 2023 Author Share Posted November 13, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - July 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga We keep up our great form, barring the Grobiņas game where we couldn't hit the barn door and lost despite dominating. Lizunovs is on fire, his 22 league goals are a new record already. Latvijas Kauss We played a heavily rotated squad and weren't at our best, thankfully Mrani sent us through with a wonder strike in the second half. Our reward is a trip to Liepāja in the quarter final. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Not sure if it's a good thing, the current board have been mostly cooperative when it comes to various upgrades. Not to mention I might lose my job! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2033 - FK Metta Virslīga Uh oh, looks like we're starting to run out of fuel. Admittedly we did face strong opposition this month, but we also dropped two points at BFC, something that shouldn't be happening. Latvijas Kauss We couldn't find our rhythm for quite some time, but once we clicked, there was no stopping us. In the semis we've been drawn at home against Auda. The other semi is the big Riga derby. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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